captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: record heat and power failures batter the east, and wildfires rage in much of the west, as extreme weather hits communities across the country. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on efforts to restore power, cool off, and get life back to normal, plus tom bearden reports from charred colorado, where evacuation orders are starting to lift. were allowed to return to their homes for the first time here in risk canyon this weekend but when they got here there wasn't much left.

>> brown: and we'll discuss the factors impacting weather extremes with a leading government climate scientist. >> woodruff: margaret warner reports from mexico, where an overwhelming call for change brings a new president from an old party. >> brown: we examine the continuing legal debate over the larger implications of the supreme court's health care ruling, and the key role played by chief justice john roberts. >> woodruff: and actor alan alda shows our science correspondent miles o'brien why he wants to help kids enjoy science by challenging teachers to be more engaging. >> it's important to communicate science because science is surrounding us. we swim in an ocean of science. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: power grids in the eastern u.s. struggled to rebuild today, even as new storms did new damage overnight. the death toll reached 22 killed

in six states since friday, and for many thousands of others, there was only stifling heat and no air conditioning. for a third day, utility crews logged long hours to restore power to some two million customers. for a third day many endured long hours of misery after losing power in violent storms that struck friday. it started around west chicago, illinois, with straight line winds reaching 90 miles an hour. from there, the storms blasted across indiana and ohio, leaving more than 50,000 people stil in the dark today around fort wayne. the mid atlantic may have been the hardest hit. crews were called in from as far as florida and oklahoma with more machinery and manpower. maryland governor martin o'malley briefed reporters this afternoon. >> we are approaching the approximate mate level of crews in, in-state crews and mutual aid out of state crews that we had within the day or two after the hit of hurricane irene.

so, there are another 800 crews arriving this evening that will be hard at work all day tomorrow as well. >> brown: new storms struck in north carolina overnight putting more people in the dark. no power, of course, meant no air conditioning or refrigeration. even as severe heat blistered much of the country. as the mercury rose, so did the frustration. >> we cleaned out our refrigerator, our freezer, you know, dumped about $500 worth of food. please help us get the power on. >> brown: in the meantime cooling centers were operating in public libraries and shopping malls to provide much-needed relief and to let people recharge essential batteries. others like arlington, virginia, resident gary singer found more creative ways to beat the heat. >> we have no electricity. we've already been to ikea which is air conditioned and the kids

can run around. now we're here to cool off. >> reporter: free bags of ice were distributed in some communities like these in maryland. >> oh, my goodness. brown: for some with serious medical conditions like john dowd of wheaton, maryland, the power outage posed a potential life-or-death threat. >> i have to keep it cool. right now that's all i can do to keep it cool. >> brown: some came from far away to fill the need. this man drove from mississippi to sell generators from the back of his truck in the washington d.c. area. >> it's for the public. trying to get them back in power. get services more than anything, not for us. >> brown: beyond staying cool, just getting around was a challenge for many. numerous traffic signals were still out making the monday morning commute especially

difficult around washington. >> on your driver's test. it's a fewer-way stop. when the lights are out, please just stop. that's, you know, the real issue just trying to drive and get around. >> brown: partly in response, the federal government and other employers allowed workers to take flexible leave and alleviate congestion. but for thousands, the only question that mattered was when will the power come back? utility companies warned that for many the answer could be not until the weekend. >> woodruff: now, we turn to the wildfires in the western half of the u.s., where firefighters are hard at work in at least half a dozen states. in south dakota, an air force c- 130 tanker plane crashed last night. at least one person was killed in the accident. six people were said to be aboard while the plane was helping fight a fire. the cause of the accident is still being investigated. in colorad fire crews are gaining more control against the waldo canyon fire near colorado springs. it's now about 55% contained.

covering over 26 square miles, the fire has destroyed nearly 350 houses. more than 1,500 firefighters are working to stop its spread. some of the residents who were ordered to leave are now being cleared to visit their homes again. newshour correspondent tom bearden joined some of those who returned this weekend following the high park fire that did damage near fort collins. >> that tray was a silver tray that my daughter won... >> reporter: that baker points out the few family treasures she's been able to dig out of the ashes of their home. >> this is a world war i helmet. it is. there's some pottery that my stepson made in junior high or high school. >> reporter: baker, a fort collins math teacher, has lived this property for 43 years in a home she built and where she raised two children. she was evacuated on june 9 when the high park fire began. that fire burned nearly 90,000 acres and destroyed more than

260 homes. baker was with her extended family when she heard about the fate of her house. >> so i wailed and cried and we had a big group hug of all these wonderful people. behind that was a little potting shed area. >> reporter: this weekend baker's family and other rist canyon residents were allowed back to assess the damage and start the long process of planning for the future. will you rebuild? >> i hope so. it depends on my insurance. but, yeah, i really hope to rebuild. i love it here. i'm not a town person. i've only lived on paved streets for eight years my life. that was graduate school and college. the rest of the time i've been a dirt road girl. >> reporter: careful. baker's insurance agent chris fry was there taking measurements and promising that a check to begin rebuilding would arrive within days. >> the hardest part about a claim like this when you've lost

your home is the stress. and the hopeless feeling that you have. if we can put money, you know, temporary money in their hands that they can function, i mean, the stress is not gone but it's diminished quite a bit. >> looks like part of it kind of exploded outward. >> reporter: homeowner and truck driver annie isn't quite as lucky. she didn't have any insurance on her home in rist canyon. she's not alone. it's estimated that up to 25% of residents in the high park area didn't have coverage. she said she had always paid cash when she made add igs to her home but never had enough money for an insurance policy. still she's optimistic she'll rebuild. >> i have a wonderful company that i work for. in resources are coming in. i've started a little savings... well, in a bank. and whatever i accumulate there is strictly building fund money. >> reporter: she's grateful for the assistance she's already

received. one example: a team of university biologists will give residents trees, bread, especially for... bred especially for fire areas. >> i'm looking for greenery. i hear my humming bird around. i'm happy about that. >> welcome to my house. reporter: pretty tough. on friday afternoon, red cross volunteers stopped by to check on her. >> that was my quiet spot. reporter: the red cross is providing meals, counseling, and other assistance. she says she's dealing with a bundle of emotions right now. >> it's kind of an up-and-down roler coaster. i'm very grateful. i'm happy for, like i said, the people that i've met that i wouldn't have met, you know, without this tragedy. the way people bond together.

i feel grieved over the property. i'll probably feel very sad. you think of things you lost. but they're all replaceable. >> reporter: this fire has burned more than houses and trees. it also took out a major part of the electrical distribution system. it's going to take time and a lot of money to replace it. how many customers do you have out there? >> we have about 500. reporter: miles jensen is with the poudre valley rural electric association. >> we with rebuilt a lot of this line four days before the fire hit. brand new line. now it's all gone. we have this line we have to rebuild going down through here and you can see up in the background behind me, it will take a while. this is one of the hardest hit areas for poudre valley. it will be four to six weeks before we get it completely rebuilt and get everybody back on again. >> reporter: more than 450 utility poles were destroyed along with 150 transformers. steve is in charge of the operation to get them replaced. >> what we do is bring in crews,

two-man teams in here on a.t.v.s, and i had to work side by side with the forest service, assess the damages. then we take that information back to our engineering department. with a they do is they start drawing up how many poles it's going to take, what kind of material it's going to take to get that done. >> reporter: much of the work has to be done in very steep terrain. >> some of these areas we can't get our equipment in. you can't get a digger in or backhoes in. some of the stuff they're hand digging. some of these poles are 30, 40 feet tall. weigh up to 500 pounds. it's a job to get these things in the ground and get them up and going. >> reporter: in spite of the tremendous damage and loss, the homeowners we've spoke to said they were optimistic about returning to their mountain way of life. >> some of the things that are toasted are showing tiny little bits. they're going to come back. so some of it will come back. then i'll have to grow new things. >> reporter: pat baker an accomplished high altitude gardener whose rare plants were

featured in a colorado magazine some years ago said the fire is is all part of a cycle. >> you know, this ridge to my east, i've been here so long, i watched when we moved here it was green. then the first wave of beatles came in. and i saw it turn brown. then the needles fell and i saw it turn gray and then i saw it turn green again. then the beatles came back and it turned brown and then now it's going gray and some of it is now black. but it's going to come back. i'll watch it come back. >> reporter: thousands of other colorado mountain dwellers share baker's hope to watch it all come back. but it will be many years before the forest regenerates. >> woodruff: we take a closer look now now at the connection between these weather events and changes in the environment. kevin trenberth is a senior scientist with the federal government's national center for atmospheric research. thank you very much for being with us. let's start with these wild fires. are they worse this year than

usual? >> this year has certainly gotten off to a very bad start. we always have some wild fires in patches. but we don't expect to see them until much later in the season. of course, this relates to how dry it has been and exceptionally dry in all of the southwestern parts of the united states. >> woodruff: and the dryness, how unusual is that? how does that compare to a normal, a typical year? >> well, certainly right in the area where we are in the boulder -- denver area, there's about a third of the normal annual precipitation up until now that has occurred. but in the mountains there's no left. normally you don't see any snow left until late august if then. by early june there was no snow

left. snow is a reflector. when it melts, it provides water. it cools the atmosphere. and water is the great air conditioner. so the absence of all of the water and the snow in the southwest has meant all of the heat from the sun is going into raising temperatures. this is the building of the heat wave. this has been building throughout this year from the relatively mild winter to the june temperatures in march this year and now we get to june. the peak of... getting to the peak of the summer. there is no parallel to this. we're now breaking records. and the heat then begins to move eastward. it picks up moisture out of the gulf. the humidity goes up to enormous amounts because the oceans have a strong memory of the climate change being warmer and moister over the oceans.

and that empowers all of the weather systems, such as the ones that came through. the thunderstorm clusters that came through and did all the damage yesterday. >> woodruff: when you say -- you used the term no parallel. you literally meant that? >> i don't think there has been anything quite like this before. back in the 1930s, the dust bowler a was very hot and dry. but, you know, i mean every year is somewhat exceptional. last year, of course, there was heat waves and all kinds of wild fires centered in texas, arizona, new mexico. it was extraordinarily hot in oklahoma. the previous year it was in russia. in 2009, there were exceptional conditions in southern australia, in theelbourne area. so these areas where the really hot and dry conditions leading to wild fires is moving around.

we certainly don't expect them to occur every year, but we do expect more of them. are odds are changing for these to occur with climate change, with the global warming from the human influences on climate. >> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask you about, too. as a scientist, what does this say is going on? >> i think it's... you know, you look out the window and you see climate change in action. this is the way it gets manifested. this normal weather events. there's the normal seasons. if we have june temperatures in march, well, you know, we have experienced them before because we get them in june. if we have a very mild winter, people like that because the winter isn't as cold. but we were breaking records then. now we're breaking records, but we're in the peak of the heat season. now we're going outside of the realm of conditions previously experienced. so that's when the damage really becomes extreme and we get all

of these wild fires, houses have been burned, tremendous damage to the environment. you know, maybe some other consequences to come with regard to things like bugs that have survived the relatively warm winter. so these are all manifestations of climate change that we expect to see more of as time goes on. >> woodruff: i was just hearing a few minutes ago that the weather service reporting more than 2,000 record temperatures matched or broken just in the last week. >> yes. well, of course, it's easy to break an individual record because the weather system just happens at that particular location. with an unchanging climate, you expect the number of highs and the number of low-temperature records are about the same. that was the case in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. by the 2000s, we were breaking high temperature records as a ratio of 2-to-1 over

cold-temperature records. this year we've been breaking high-temperature records at a rate of about 10-to-1. i mean, ironically there are still some cool spots mainly in the pacific northwest. cold-temperature records continue to be broken. breaking records is not an indication of climate change. but breaking records at a rate of 10 to-1 versus the cold records that's a clear indication of climate change. smeud something for scientists like you and others who study the climate to keep you busy it sounds like. >> this is a view of the future. watch out. >> woodruff: we hear the message. thank you very much. >> you're most welcome. >> brown: still to come on the newshour, mexico's new president from an old familiar party; the health care ruling and chief justice roberts' role; and miles o'brien on alan alda and teaching science. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: drug maker

glaxosmithkline must now pay $3 billion, the largest penalty ever for a drug company. the justice department announced today that glaxo admitted to promoting the anti-depressants paxil and wellbutrin for unapproved uses. it also failed to disclose important safety information about avandia, a diabetes drug. we get more from katie thomas, who's covering the story for the "new york times." katie, what's the $3 billion fine for? it's been alled off-label marketing. what is that? >> well, what it is is it's considered illegal promoting of the drugs for types of uses that were not approved by the food and drug administration. so in the example of paxil, it was being marketed to children, people under 18. another drug was being marketed for sexual dysfunction and weight loss instead of depression. and then avandia is a slightly different allegation. that said the company was not accurately reporting the heart risks of the drug.

>> gary: there were other issues that glaxosmithkline decided to resolve in the eyes of the law. kickbacks to doctors and other issues as well. >> right, yes. the allegation was that they were paying doctors, you know, to go to conferences and meetings and kind of promote the uses of these drugs for these off-label uses. >> sreenivasan: let's put the $3 billion in perspective here. how much of a deal or how big is a deal is this to glaxosmithkline? >> well, it's a lot of money. $3 billion is a lot of money even to a major drug company. it's the largest payout in the history of this particular law called the false claims act. at the same time some people say that you have to really put this into perspective. i pulled some of the sales figures for the three biggest drugs in question. avandia, for example, during the period of this settlement was more than $10 billion in sales.

same thing for paxil, more than $10 billion. and then the other drug was more than $6 billion. when you put it into that perspective, you see how much money they're making on these drugs. $3 billion is still a lot of money, but some people say it's not enough to actually deter future activity. >> sreenivasan: katie thomas from the "new york times," thanks so much. apple has paid $60 million to settle a dispute in china over who owns the ipad name. a chinese company had claimed it still owned the rights to the name within china. apple insisted it bought the global rights back in 2009, but chinese courts ruled differently. a chinese court announced the settleme today. china is apple's second largest market after the u.s. unemployment in the eurozone has passed the 11% mark. the european union reported today the rate hit 11.1% in may, up a tenth from april. it's also the highest rate since the euro currency was launched in 1999. all told, more than 17 and a half million people are out of work in the 17 eurozone nations.

american manufacturing cut back in june for the first time in nearly three years. a trade group, the institute for supply management, reported today that production and new orders were down. the news got wall street off to a slow start for the holiday week. the dow jones industrial average lost eight points to close at 12,871. the nasdaq rose 16 points to close at 2951. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: mexicans voted for change yesterday by turning to the standard-bearer of the country's oldest political party. ray suarez explains. >> suarez: there were plenty of satisfieded revelers today in mexico city after last night's victory celebration for the man who promised to both reinvigorate a slow-growing economy and reduce drug-related violence. margaret warner was there. >> warner: the party started early last night under the big top at the headquarters of the pri, mexico's institutional revolutionary party.

thousands of the party's faithful danced and sang awaiting the arrival of enrique nieto, mexico's next president. with him their return to power after being dumped by the voters 12 years ago. pena strode on stage, his soap opera star wife by his side. posing for pictures well after midnight. minutes earlier he delivered a more sober speech inside outlining his vision for the six-year term ahead and promising the pri would not revert to the authoritarian style with which it had ruled mexico for seven decades. >> mexicans have given our party a second chance. we will honor it with results, with a new way of governing, accordingly to the demands of a 21st century mexico. we are a new generation and will not return to the past. >> warner: he also vowed to continue but reorient the war against the drug cartels that killed 55,000 president since

called enron launched it in early 2007. >> the fight against crime will continue, yes, with a new strategy to reduce the violence and to protect the life of mexicans. in the face of organized crime there will be neither negotiations nor troops. >> warner: last night's quick count by the election commission showed him handily beating his closest rival, leftist former mayor obrador. with josephina vazquez mota trailing far behind. vazquez mota conceded early. but obrador told supporters he would wait until full official results are reported wednesday. after his narrow loss that paralyzed the capital for weeks charging fraud and demanding a recount. >> the facts are not there yet. there needs to be an official count. there needs to be a legal result of the electoral process. there is no final word yet. >> warner: scattered reports of irregularities in yesterday's

vote mostly involve late starts and lack of ball localities. university student voted in the capital's neighborhood for obrador. she said she believed nieto could only win by fraud and said obrador's supporters would not take the pri win easily. >> i think the people are going to stand up. i mean, i won't say there's going to be a revolution but i think a lot of people will be in the streets. >> warner: calderon once this polling place six years ago, one supporter went for pena nieto yesterday. >> the insecurity is very bad. all the lack of control that i have seen. we even gave the party a second chance in 2006. they didn't do well. >> warner: the government's inability to protect citizens from violence amid the brutal drug war was front and center for many voters. as was economic security. t this voter, television station manager, voiced concern about what a return by the pri

would mean. >> you cannot take him out. if he wins with the support of this huge machine, very good machine. it works how it was designed. it was not designed for democracy. >> warner: in the working class city 40 minutes outside the capital, turnout was heavy. cleaning lady chose lopez obrador because she thought he uld ke care of families like hers. but she said pena nieto as governor of mexico state delivered on his promises here too. >> for example, we lacked water here. he sent trucks full of water to help the people. >> warner: the taxi driver, a long-time pri voter longed for a return to the stability of its former era. >> i remember 20 years ago the government was different. it was a better way of living. in the past 12 years, the economy has downhill.

>> warner: diaz said he'll be judging pena nieto not just on promised but on results. >> he's made a commitment. i hope he fulfills his knitment. if there's going to be a change let's have it for the best. >> warner: a sentiment all mexicans share. >> suarez: margaret joins us now from mexico city. margaret, welcome. how does pena nieto's promised agenda during the campaign differ from that of the current ruling party? should mexicans be expecting big changes when he takes over at the end of the year? >> warner: ray, they're certainly expecting changes. he's been clear in sweeping terms. as i said in the piece on the reducingal violence side it's time to start focusing on the violent cartels not to give up the fight but to refocus. that means really going off, say, the zetas who boasted 49 u.s. bodies on a highway.

now on economic reform he's promised pretty big things. they all concern introducing competition into what are these huge public and private monopolies here. in oil and gas and electricity and telecommunications. these are both controlled by stalwarts of the pri. whether it's the oil company or whether it's the telecom giant owned by carlos. so their theory is is that mexico will be growing a lot faster if only they had more competition. that's really going to be his number-one focus economically. >> suarez: as you noted in your rert, one passage in the victory speech last night has been getting a lot of attention. in the face of organized crime, there will be neither negotiation nor truce. was that an important signal that the new administration will continue fighting the war on the drug cartel? and was that heard in an important way in the united

states? >> warner: it was a very important signal. the pena nieto camp thought long and hard about that speech last night. that's what they wanted to say. they had to say that because of the pri's history both on the federal level and in the state of colluding with cartels in certain areas. now the pri advisors to pena nieto say that's impossible anyway because president calderon's drug was has so fragmented the cartels there aren't top people to deal with in any event. he needed to send a strong signal that he won't join in something like that. and the problem for him is that there are pri governors who are considered to be, we would say,... who are colluding in some way either out of fear or because of financial gain (audio going in and out) the big question is even on a federal level the new government isn't going to cloudy, what is he going to do about these pri governors. >> suarez: in 2006, the

second-place finisher, obrador lost by a whisper, by a hair. any challenge... and he challenged the results, as you noted but took it further calling himself the real president of mexico, even swearing in a shadow cabinet. the official results won't be made known until later in the week. is there any signal from the p.r.d. whether they will accept the results as they're released by the independent electoral commission? there's been an interruption because of the weather. perhaps you could see the heavy rainfalling in mexico's central square. we've lost the signal from mexico city. jeff, back to you. >> brown: that's the perils of live television. so we'll move on while we try to get the signal back with margaret. since the supreme court handed down its landmark health care decision last week, legal scholars and commentators have honed in on the role of chief justice roberts who decided with

the court's liberals to allow the individual mandate to stand. and on the decision's wider impact on future attempts to assert or restrain federal powers in this and other areas. we explore all this with laurence tribe, professor of constitutional law at harvard law school, where he once had john roberts, as well as president obama, as students. and david rivkin, a partner at the baker-hostetler law firm in washington. he represented the 26 states that challenged the constitutionality of the affordable care act. professor tribe, i think let's start with your former student. there's been continuing speculation as to whether he changed his vote. it was reported by jan crawford of cbs that there had been a big internal battle from conservatives to get him to change back. does any of this matter? what does it say to you, that there's this speculation? >> well, the main thing it says is that somebody in the supreme court is leaking or that jan crawford greenburg has her facts

wrong. i think shs a pretty good reporter, so i would suspect that some law clerk has some pretty loose lips. i think that's terrible because even though in some prior cases over the 40 years or so that i've watched the court, there have been leaks. four or five years after a decision. for somebody to go tattling on what justices said to each other or to law clerks just a day after a decision is really horrendous. i mean there really are important principles of confidentiality, of internal deliberations that were compromised. but the underlying point that the chief justice might not have had his mind firmly fixed on his final conclusion at the outset is hardly scandalous. certainly earl warren, during the time that i clerked at the court, changed his mind on a number of occasions. i think a chief justice whose mind is so rigidly and firmly fixed that he's not open to

persuasion, would not be a very good chief justice. besides that, i noticed while i was watching the argument, a pretty clear signal from the chief justice -- although i was surprised others didn't seem to note these -- that he was considering the possibility that, although this was called a mandate, since it operates exactly like a tax, it simply increases the tax liability of people otherwise eligible to pay taxes for those who would impose a free ride on others, that it's really a tax after all. that's why i predicted before the decision that it would come out in favor of the affordable care act and that the chief justice would probably, as i said on the air on a couple of stations, conclude that it was a tax. that didn't surprise me. >> brown: let me bring in david rivkin, first on the question of the... whether the chief justice changed his vote. is that important? >> no, it's not. i agree with professor tribe.

justices do change their minds sometimes shortly after the oral arguments sometimes later. but what i wanted to emphasize is how remarkably well the constitution has done. this is where i disagree with professor tribe. i think it's a defeat for the obama administration. for over two-and-a-half years, the administration and every supporter of the obama care has been justifying the individual mandate on the basis of a commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause in a way that essentially devalues the constitutional architecture in this country. five justices, jeff,ive justices have said that is not correct. the taxing power argument which i'm not very happy. even of those people like professor tribe who have said that the mandate is supported by the taxing power have never said it's supported by the taxing power alone. the very shift that the administration... ship that the administration has been sailing has sunk. seven justices, including justice kagan and justice breyer have said the other center piece of obama care, the forced

medicare restructuring that imposed tremendous burden on my 26 states isn't constitutional. that is a stunning victory. the fact that the mandate still stands is unfortunate. it does not detract. >> brown: professor tribe, come back in here but try to move it ahead here about the larger implications of this. there are some analysis after this that is the conservative scholars like yourself, mr. rivkin, lost the ed battle but won a larger constitutional war in terms of limiting the federal government in the future on other issues. what do you think of that argument, professor tribe? >> well, i think the court by a vote of 5-4 reaffirmed the existing limits on the commerce power. they didn't really impose any new limits. they simply said that there has never been a prior exulings to purchase a commercial product. they were going to draw the line there. i don't think we're going to see lots of attempts by congress to

regulate that way. because of the breadth of the taxing power, it won't be necessary. as the chief justice pointed out, instead of actually compelling someone on pain of imprisonment to, for example, install energy-efficient equipment in her home, what you do is increase the tax liability of such a person. i do want to correct something that david said. it's not true that the administration or i or others said that you had to blend and mix all of the sources of congressional power. the argument was made by the solicitor general, and i argued as did some others that there werewere separate stools on whih congress could stand. one of them on which we argued that congress could stand alone is the taxing power. indeed, in the fall of 1977 when chief justice roberts was a student in my course, i was finishing up a trius on

constitutional law whose main chapter on the taxing power argued that that power was alone sufficient given its breadth to provide all of the incentives that congress needed, and the chief justice made a point in his opinion saying that unlike the regulatory power which perhaps needs some active involvement by people before it can kick in, the taxing power is specifically designed so that it can apply, for example, under a direct tax, can apply simply for, as the chief justice said, for existing. it's very clear that the taxing power is broad enough to suffice here. so it doesn't matter who won or who lost. >> brown: let me come back to you, david rivkin. where specifically do you see... again, looking beyond the health care act. where do you see the decision affecting the power of the federal government in this or other areas? >> this decision involved joined dissent and the court's majority opinion.

>> brown: majority on the medicaid part? >> not just medicaid. the chief justice roberts for the court. we articulate in a most elegant fashion the importance of a dual sovereignty system. its connection to individual liberty, the proposition that the federal government cannot exercise police power. from the very beginning this is not about health care. this is not about individual mandate. it's about constitutional architecture. the fact that this decision... i've not seen since the lopez decision where there was only a concurring opinion by justice kennedy. it's remarkable. even on the taxing power, professor tribe misses the point that there are limiting factors that the chief justice hung his hat on. for example, the total size of a penalty. i think if the penalty was in the thousands of dollars the decision may have come out differently but what's important in the long run again, to correct this mistaken impression which this administration is unfortunately propounded that somehow the structural separation of powers issues are

not important. only matters, what was good for matter and policy and politics. >> brown: the way i characterized it earlier... hold on just a second, professor tribe. the way i characterized it for your side has a loss in the medicines but you see a victory. >> a strong victory that will rebound through decades of case law. >> brown: professor tribe. for 40 years i've been teaching that the constitutional structure of separation and division of powers was important. i supported decisions like lopez. it simply is a bum rap to say that the obama administration cares only about this law. but even if it only cared about this law, that would be millions of people that need to get coverage. the obama administration took the position that it's important to recognize the difference between the police powers of the states and the limited powers of the federal government, but it simply argued that this law was within those powers and it turns out that it was. you know, we don't have a rule in the constitution of just one

clause per case. something can be valid because of several possible courses of power. >> professor tribe. brown: hold on. hold on. >> when congress creates... go ahead. >> when congress created the first national bank, the supreme court in mcculloch versus maryland in 1819 said it was permissible because of several different sources of power. >> how is it possible in every round of oral argument and in every brief the obama administration which i had the pleasure and privilege of litigating in the lower courts has argued repeatedly while paying lip service, professor tribe, lip service to the proposition that the federal government does not exercise police powers has been arguing that compelling individuals to enter into a commercial transaction not just purchasing health insurance but any commercial transaction is okay. that view has been decisively rejected by five justices. there's got to be some accounting for that. it's not just a pedantic point. >> brown: well, we are not going to resolve this tonight. we're not going to resolve this one for a long time but we'll

continue looking at the legal issues. i want to thank you both laurence tribe and mr. rivkin. thanks both very much. >> good to be with you. >> brown: for our complete health care coverage on the impact of last week's decision, you can visit our home page. and we'll continue the supreme court discussion on-air on wednesday, when we hear more about the term as a whole, from historian michael beschloss and marcia coyle of the "national law journal." >> woodruff: next, making science understandable to young people. sure it sounds simple enough, but sometimes, the explanation doesn't really explain. now, a well-known actor-- who, as they say, once played a doctor on tv-- has made it his mission to help bridge the gap. newshour science correspondent miles o'brien has the story. reporter: talk about a tough crowd. >> and thank you for... you were so orderly coming in.

no spit balls thrown at me. none of that stuff. that was very nice of you. >> do they still do spit balls? yeah. really, no kidding some. some things don't change. reporter: a room full of restless 11-year-olds. >> do you know who we are? no. you have no idea. have you ever seen this guy on tv? >> yeah. okay good. what show? >> mash. good. he hasn't changed a bit, has he? >> no (laughing). reporter: but on this morning at south middle school in brentwood, new york, alan alda put them in the palm of his hand. >> (laughing) you had your hand up, did you? >> reporter: and get this. the topic was science. >> why is the sky blue? that's a really good one. yeah, and harder than it sounds. i love the questions that are harder than they sound. >> reporter: alan alda, sixth graders and science. why this? why this, well, mash-up?

it turns out the seed that led to this moment was planted 65 years ago when the actor was himself all of a 11 and asked a teacher one of those seemingly simple yet devilishly complex questions. >> what's a flame? what's in a flame? what's going on inside a flame? all i heard from the teacher was it's oxidation. that didn't explain anything to me. i didn't know what oxidation was. (mash theme music playing). >> reporter: after his 11-season emmy-winning run on the cbs sitcom mash... >> hand me the one on my right. reporter: ... he hosted the opinions series scientific american frontiers, whichen meshed him in the world of science. he couldn't stop thinking about the flame, the nonanswer and the challenge scientists face explaining their work to the public. >> let go of it. yang harder. >> reporter: why is it important? >> it's important to communicate science because science is surrounding us.

we swim in an ocean of science. >> reporter: and that is what sparked his idea for the flame challenge. scientists have to explain just what a flame is besides oxidation. the winner selected by a worldwide jury of 6,000 11-year-olds from alaska to australia. there were more than 500 entries in all. >> st. croix. let's hear from st. croix. >> reporter: we watched as alda and his enthusiastic judges from ten classrooms discussed and debated the finalists in a videoconference. >> okay. i really like this entry because i thought that it explained everything really well. it also was pretty funny. everyone remembered it. i thought it was really good actually. >> great. thank you. >> reporter: some scientists submitted written entries, others used visuals but it's likely no surprise that this generation prefers videos.

>> excuse me. pardon me. >> reporter: and in particular this one featuring a man chained up in hell. lego molecule s. they rearrange to make sufficient like water and carbon dioxide. >> reporter: and a little ditty that reinforces tricky concepts and long intimidating words. >> oxidation. so so i think the clarity mixed with the humor and the examples, it just combined to make a really good entry. the good entries that were the ones that, even though, if they did have big words that we didn't know, that they explained it in a simpler way for us. >> i'll join you in this. let's make sure the ball has the same weight, the same size. >> reporter: the flame challenge is just the latest tactic in alda's ambitious campaign to bridge the gap between scientists and the rest of us. believe it or not, this improvisation exercise is part of that effort.

this is a class at the center for communicating science at stonybrook university which alda helpd found three years ago to give these scientists in training some training in the art of communication. >> what on earth does that have to do with science? >> what it has to do with science is, if all you're worried about is how do i look, how do i sound, will i remember all the hard words, am i saying this exactly the right way, then you're not really communicating. you're in your own head. okay. go. >> reporter: while there's no scientific proof it works, the grad students who have taken these classes offer strong testimonials. >> never dumb it down. just make it more approachable. that's why we played the game. >> it's not simple, is it? no. it really helps you focus on the connections with the audience and when you're losing them and how to get that back. instead of being stuck in your head and worried about how

you're sounding, you're worried about... you're looking at are you getting what you're saying? >> like sea frost on the waves of space or ten drills of light some of them containing hundreds of billions of... >> reporter: scientists willing to loosen up and engage the public often find themselves the target of harsh attack from their peers. it happened to the late astrophysicist carl sagan star of the 1980s pbs series cosmos. and became a tonight show regular, famous enough to be gently mocked by johnny carson himself. >> last macdonald's before the edge of the universe. they've actually sold over 9 billion cosmic hamburgers. and of course billions and billions of fries. >> come with me.

reporter: sagan blazed a trail for others. >> yeah. there is some exploratory clearing of the brush that he conducted. i'm a little bit unscathed because he cleared it in advance of my arrival. >> here's one of the biggest surprises. as clever and as perceptive as the human brain can be... >> reporter: astrophysicist neal degrasse tyson is an hare to the sagan throne of popular science. >> on this episode, nova science now. >> reporter: he has hosted the pbs nova science now program. >> neal degrasse tyson. reporter: he's a regular on the colbert report and is currently working on a new cosmos series that will air on fox. >> if you get tax money to do your research, as we do in astro physics, all right, nasa and the national science foundation, then it is not only your duty. it's an obligation to share the

fruits of your research with the public. if the public does not embrace science, then not only does science go out of business, so does the public. so does your country. >> nice hardware. that's good stuff. >> reporter: b not scientist are able to use both sides of their brain like ben aimes can. a quantum physicist working toward his ph.d. at the university of innsbruck and the creator of the video that kids loved and voted the undisputed winner of the flame challenge. >> the truth is is not be is a qualified communicator in a sense. so i think definitely people who have that tool set should use it. the people who have the tool set are then obligated. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: aimes came to new york to get his trophy, awarded by alan alda's 11-year-old granddaughter ellie. he was also rewarded with a

surprise serenade of the song he wrote. >> for me the most touching part was just seeing that kids have got it. they understood what i was trying to say. whatever i did, it worked. >> reporter: it was a victory, too, for al and alda who was just as impressed with his young judges as he was with ben aimes. >> when i... what i loved about what they said was that them didn't like the short answers, the ones that were too short because they didn't learn enough. they wanted to learn. they really wanted to understand it. >> reporter: there will be another challenge next year. once again an 11-year-old will pick the question scientists will have to answer. this time, a current 11-year-old, not one who asked a question in 1947 and got the answer and so much more in 2012. >> woodruff: you can watch ben aimes' entire winning entry on our website. also there, a surprising thing.

al and alda learned about kids and science through the challenge. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day, record heat and power failures battered the east, and the death toll from violent weather reached 22 killed in six states since friday. wildfires raged another day in much of the west. the air force confirmed at least one crew member died when a tanker plane crashed last night, fighting a fire in south dakota. and glaxo-smith-kline agreed to pay a record $3 billion for promoting two antidepressant drugs for unapproved uses. we regret we were not able to reconnect with margaret warner in mexico. sorry, margaret. but you can find all of her reporting from mexico on the newshour online. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the newshour online. hari? >> sreenivasan: now that the supreme court has upheld the health care law, what comes next? health correspondent betty ann bowser blogs about what states

and local governments might do. and on our making sense page, business and economics correspondent paul solman answers the question: what's a better value, u.s. savings bonds, gold, or silver? all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> woodruff: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are eight more.

>> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll have two newsmaker interviews with the new president-elect of mexico and i.m.f. chief christine lagarde. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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